The City of Boulder has implemented a hiring freeze and asked departments to scale back spending for the rest of 2025 as it faces a potential $8-$10 million budget shortfall, officials announced in a recent press release.
Yearly change in sales and use tax revenue
2023-2024: -0.92%
2022-2023: 3.79%
2021-2022: 11.04%
2020-2021: 12.65%
2019-2020: -4.76%
2018-2019: 0.96%
2017-2018: 4.54%
2016-2017: 0.08%
2015-2016: 3.35%
2014-2015: 4.57%
2013-2014: 6.24%
2012-2013: 7.56%
2011-2012: 3%
2010-2011: 5.73%
2009-2010: 2.64%
Source: City of Boulder revenue reports
Slowing sales tax — the city’s single-largest source of revenue — and state property tax reforms were blamed for the crunch, along with shifting consumer behavior amid inflation and tariff-induced price increases.
“We do not take this step lightly, but we, like many other local governments, are facing challenging conditions,” City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde said in the release. “We have a responsibility to ensure we can fulfill our obligations to serve our community within a balanced budget.”
Department heads have been "asked to look for opportunities to underspend its allocated budget over the next five and a half months," the release stated, and warned that hiring and budget increases "are unlikely in 2026." The budgeting process for next year has already begun internally; council will get its first look at the proposed spending plan later this summer.
Boulder has been warning of slowing sales tax since at least 2018, when the city faced a $4 million budget shortfall. Elected officials have for several years focused on long-term financial planning to address the city’s solvency.
Online revenue reports show sales and use tax declined nearly 1% overall from 2023 to 2024, following three straight years of post-COVID growth. Boulder’s sales tax revenue has grown every year but two in the past 15 years: 2020 and 2024.
But the rate of growth slowed by nearly half from 2015-2019, when it averaged 2.7% annually. From 2009 to 2015, the city’s sales tax was growing 5.03% per year, on average.
The hiring freeze, which will impact an estimated 85 positions, will last through the end of the year, according to city officials. Boulder budgeted for 1,539 full-time employees in 2025.